1^3. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



337 



saildcrack. In Mayhew's excellent work on the 

 Horse, we find some illustrations which we have 

 secured and now present to the reader, hoping 

 they may aid him in performing a cure, if he pos- 

 sesses an afflicted horse. He says any cause which 

 weakens the body of the horse by interfering'with 

 the health of its secretions may induce sandcrack. 

 Treading for any length of time upon a floor from 

 which all moisture is absent, by rendering the 

 horn hard or dry, may cause the hoof to be brittle 

 and give rise to sandcrack, 



Sandcracks are of two sorts. Quaiier crack, 

 which chiefly happens among the lighter breed of 

 animals ; toe crack, which occurs principally with 

 cart-horses, and mostly with those which work 

 between the shafts. 



Quarter Crack. Generally met with, in 



fast horseS; upon the inner side of the fore 



foot. 



Quarter sandcrack, which is illus- 

 trated above, is of the least impor- 

 ^^tance of the two. It is oftenest 

 seen upon the inner quarter of the 

 hoof, where the horn, being thinnest, is most sub- 

 jected to motion. It usually commences at the 

 crown of the hoof, that is, where the hair ends, 

 and extends to the sole. A horse thus afiected 

 should be placed loose, in a large stall, or box, 

 and receive soft, nutritious food, such as boiled 

 oats, scalded hay and grass. Greased rags should 

 be placed over the hoofs and under the sole, and 

 a hot iron may be drawn across each end of the 

 crack to prevent its extending. 



The illustration on the left hand, below, shows 

 a partial sandcrack, dressed and shod, and that 

 on the right hand the methods of eradicating a 

 sandcrack. The lines represented are made with 

 » red hot iron, and need not be made so deep as 

 to cause pain to the horse. Either the semicircu- 

 lar or the angular lines are equally effective. 



By gradually scraping away the edges of the 

 crack with a sharp knife, keeping them clean and 

 smooth, they will be much more likely to unite. 

 But the horse should have all the rest possible, 

 and if used, the foot always thoroughly cleaned 

 before he is put up. 



^p* The third Massachusetts account with the 

 United States has recently been transmitted to 

 Washington by the Auditor, Levi Reed. The 

 amount disbursed on belialf of the general govern- 

 ment has be^n $3,305,110 52. The amount due 

 the State is $1,829,922 25. There has been paid 

 by the State on account of the United States, since 

 Jan. 1, 1863, to the present time, $28,905 



SELECTION OP SEED. 

 We cut from the July number of the TT't'^^mj'n*- 

 ter Review the following passage as containing a 

 most remarkable experiment upon the effects of 

 carefully selecting seed wheat : 



"In pacing through the Great Exhibition of last 

 summer, many of our readers may have noticed 

 among the agricultural products in the Eastern 

 Annexe some magnificent ears of corn, bearing 

 the somewhat novel title of "pedigree wheat," 

 which excited the admiration of all those interest- 

 ed in such matters — except, indeed, the jurors, 

 who left them unnoticed. This wheat was exhib- 

 ited by Mr. Hallet, of Brighton, who has given its 

 history in the Royal Agricultural Society's Jour- 

 nal, vol. xxii. part 2. It appears that this gentle- 

 man having conceived the notion that careful 

 breeding might produce some of the same advan- 

 tages in cereals which it has been found to do in 

 cattle and horses, commenced some years ago a 

 series of experiments with the view of carrying 

 out his idea. Having selected one ear of wheat 

 of remarkably fine quality, he sowed the grains 

 se])arately, at a distance of twelve inches apart. 

 The next year he further selected the one finest 

 ear produced from the former; and treated that in 

 a similar way. The following table gives the re- 

 sult at the end of the fifth year from the original 

 sowing : 



I'ear. Length. Containing Number of JEars 



Inches. Grains. on Stool, 



1857— Original ear 4?i 45 



18.08— Finest ear 6'^ 79 10 



1859— " " 7Ji 91 22 



I860 — Ears imperfect from 



wet season 39 



1861— Finest ear 8% 123 62 



'Thus,' says Mr. Hallett, 'by means of repeat- 

 ed selection alone, the length of the ears has been 

 doubled, their contents nearly trebled, and the til- 

 lering power of the seed increased five-fold.' By 

 'tillering,' we should perhaps mention, is meant 

 the horizontal growth of the wheat-plant, which 

 takes place before the vertical stems are thrown 

 up, and upon the extent of which, therefore, de- 

 pends in a great degree the number of ears which 

 the single plant produces. Now there can be no 

 doubt that a great dealof the maivellous improve- 

 ment shown in the above table is due to the treat- 

 ment to which Mr. Hallett subjected his wheat ; 

 that is to say, to the fact of its being sown singly 

 and apart, so that each plant has been allowed to 

 develop itself fully ; but we cannot attribute the 

 whole to this cause." 



May not the course here illustrated be followed 

 with advantage in many cases ? A correspondent 

 of the X. E. Farmer, "E. K.," of Hardwick, seems 

 to have pursued a similar course with Indian 

 corn, whereby he has, within twenty years, in- 

 creased the yield from forty or sixty bushels per 

 acre to seventy or nearly a hundred. Something 

 vsimilar has been usually done, in the case of Indi- 

 an corn, very generally, for many years. Would 

 it not be worth the labor it would require to select 

 the largest, longest heads of rye, from such stocks 

 as had tillered most, and continue to do this for 

 years in succession? Why should we not do the 

 same thing with all our garden vegetables ? 



